Populist rage, ideological fractures, economic and technological shocks, geopolitical dangers, and an international system studded with catastrophic risk--the early decades of the twenty-first century may be the most revolutionary period in modern history. But it is not the first. Humans have lived, and thrived, through more than one great realignment. What makes an age a revolutionary one? And how does it all end?

In this major new work, Fareed Zakaria masterfully investigates eras that have shattered and shaped humanity. Three such periods hold profound lessons for today. First, in the seventeenth-century Netherlands, a series of transformations made that tiny land the richest in the world--and created modern politics as we know it today. Next, the French Revolution, an explosive era that devoured its ideological children and left a bloody legacy that haunts us to this day. Finally, the mother of all revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, which catapulted Great Britain and the US to global dominance and created the modern world. Against these paradigm-shifting historical eras, Zakaria describes our current situation, unpacking the four revolutions we are living through now: in globalization, technology, identity, and geopolitics.

As few public intellectuals can, Zakaria combines intellectual range, deep historical insight, and uncanny prescience to once again reframe and illuminate a turbulent present.